If you need it, here's a handy product that will fit your radar reflector to the backstay.
http://www.steersman.net/RDTR.html
http://www.steersman.net/RDTR.html
Thinking About AIS, Radar, Night Sailing, Tankers Etc.
- Thread starter Rick D
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If I could afford only one, I'd install an AIS transponder before radar if I sailed crowded waters.
Besides the obvious benefits of commercial traffic seeing you, they can also respond to a radio hail as you know their name and they know yours. Much better than "Large tanker in the upper Chesapeake this is the white sailboat on your starboard bow"
And no commercial captain is going to filter a Class B AIS signal when running down another boat is typically a career ending event (not to mention the obvious moral aspects). Those AIS tracks make great evidence in any legal proceedings as we saw with the grounding of Costa Concordia
In the sad case of the Ouzo, I believe the ferry captain never sailed again.
Carl
Besides the obvious benefits of commercial traffic seeing you, they can also respond to a radio hail as you know their name and they know yours. Much better than "Large tanker in the upper Chesapeake this is the white sailboat on your starboard bow"
And no commercial captain is going to filter a Class B AIS signal when running down another boat is typically a career ending event (not to mention the obvious moral aspects). Those AIS tracks make great evidence in any legal proceedings as we saw with the grounding of Costa Concordia
In the sad case of the Ouzo, I believe the ferry captain never sailed again.
Carl
As someone who has all these tools (plus broadband radar), an AIS-B transmit / receiver is a way better option than night vision, and even IR night vision for commercial accidence avoidance. And while "AIS-B clutter" is much talked about, it is a convenient excuse for not incurring the AIS-B transmitter installation cost. Simply stated, AIS-B will make you seen and ID'd, and greatly improves the safety of limited visibility boating.
Sailing up the Red Sea in the seventies, with literally hundreds of ships and boats transiting the area each day and a significant amount of sand in the air, or passing through the Straits of Gibraltar under sail (also a very high traffic area), we had none of the fancy equipment available for yachts as we do today. How did we ever survive?
You all can put as much of this stuff on your boats as you please, but if you rely on it or the other vessel to avoid a dangerous situation, then you are just playing Russian roulette with your crew's lives and your own. Use your eyes, ears and your brains, no matter what that expensive piece of equipment is telling you.
I love my radar (of course, I know how to use it), my 10" chartplotter and all the other toys which make voyaging today so easy, but it really doesn't make it safer if you can't sail without it, because one day you may have to.
Every one of you who sails with all the fancy gear, should turn it all off and sail a whole bunch without it, until you are completely competent and confident, then use it to your heart's content. And NEVER trust the other guy to do the right thing, even if you are in communication with him.
And networking your autopilot to your GPS is insanity, IMO. No mindless machine will ever sail a vessel I operate.
You all can put as much of this stuff on your boats as you please, but if you rely on it or the other vessel to avoid a dangerous situation, then you are just playing Russian roulette with your crew's lives and your own. Use your eyes, ears and your brains, no matter what that expensive piece of equipment is telling you.
I love my radar (of course, I know how to use it), my 10" chartplotter and all the other toys which make voyaging today so easy, but it really doesn't make it safer if you can't sail without it, because one day you may have to.
Every one of you who sails with all the fancy gear, should turn it all off and sail a whole bunch without it, until you are completely competent and confident, then use it to your heart's content. And NEVER trust the other guy to do the right thing, even if you are in communication with him.
And networking your autopilot to your GPS is insanity, IMO. No mindless machine will ever sail a vessel I operate.
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